#its a whale skeleton with extra limbs

[sleepanonymous]

Just let me know If nowadays, the outer rounds of heaven don't Keep up on the charm offensive anymore Failing to remind you what you're living for

[sciencespies]

Why Bats Are One of Evolution’s Greatest Puzzles

https://sciencespies.com/nature/why-bats-are-one-of-evolutions-greatest-puzzles/

Why Bats Are One of Evolution’s Greatest Puzzles

Listen carefully on a quiet summer night and you might hear them. Even if you don’t see a bat’s frantically fluttering form, you might catch its high-pitched chirp as it searches the night for dinner. You’re probably hearing a little brown bat, a common insect-eater found throughout North America, but it is just one of more than a thousand species of bat ranging from the one-inch-long Kitti’s hog-nosed bat to the enormous, three-pound giant golden-crowned flying fox.

Large or small, bats suffer a reputation problem. Aside from being associated with vampires, they’re often called “flying rats” and blamed for the spread of zoonotic diseases into humans (including COVID-19, though whether that blame is founded is as of yet unclear.) This fear often overshadows the fascinating fact that bats are the only mammals to have evolved powered flight, and they’ve been flapping around for tens of millions of years. Where, then, did these flying oddities come from?

Bats pop up in the fossil record around 50 million years ago during a time known as the Eocene. Paleontologists have recovered remains ranging from teeth and bits of jaw to stunning full skeletons in places as far-flung as Wyoming, Paris, Australia and India’s Vastan Mine.

Onychonycteris from Fossil Butte National Monument

(Wiki Commons)

There are some differences between the oldest bats and their modern relatives. Based upon the ear anatomy of the better-preserved specimens, for example, scientists know that the first bats couldn’t echolocate. They relied on sight, smell and touch to find their meals. While modern bats have a claw only on the equivalent of our thumb, earlier bats kept some of the additional finger claws inherited from their ancestors. A fossil bat dating to about 52 million years ago, dubbed Onychonycteris finneryi in 2008, had claws on all five of its fingers. New technology has added a few details to the early bat story, too. A recent study of coloration in the fossil record found that two 48 million-year-old bats found in Germany were mostly brown.

Despite these strides, scientists are left with some big questions. For one thing: The 50-million-year-old bat specimens are already recognizable as bats, so where did they come from? When, where, why and how the first bats become airborne is another mystery buried by Deep Time.

Paleontologists are familiar with such conundrums. For decades, anatomists and zoologists were confounded by the origin of whales. Then, at the end of the 20th century, a wealth of fossil finds provided a detailed outline of how hoofed land mammals became the sea’s largest swimmers. Birds presented a similar problem, with their origin from an unknown reptile ancestor stumping experts until some new ideas about the “terrible lizards” and amazing fossil finds proved that birds are living dinosaurs. Until recently, turtles presented an odd case similar to that of bats; the shelled reptiles seemed to appear out of nowhere in the fossil record. During the past two decades, experts have identified new species of transitional turtles and revised their opinions of already-known species to explain how turtles got their shells.

Spectacled flying fox

(CSIRO)

Each of these puzzling paleontological examples involved a major change in how the animals lived. Whales moved from the land to the ocean, birds started as terrestrial dinosaurs and took to the air and turtles were terrestrial reptiles that started burrowing underground. Bats follow the trend, undoubtedly starting from terrestrial mammal ancestors. The question is where the missing examples of early bats may be found.

“The short answer is, we don’t know why there is a missing record of ten million years,” says University of Birmingham paleontologist Emily Brown. Several factors may be at play, according to an assessment of the bat fossil record Brown and colleagues published last year.

Early bats’ choice of dwelling may have been a barrier to their preservation. “It’s previously been suggested that early bats may have predominantly lived in forested environments, which do not have very good preservation potential,” Brown says. Her survey found that the fossil record of modern bats that live in forests and jungles is largely incomplete, probably for the same reason.

The bats that modern scientists know best lived in places where rapid and delicate preservation entombed the tiny mammals. Some of the bones of Icaronycteris index, one of the earliest known bats and a neighbor of Onychonycteris, are as thin as a human hair. The only reason we know about these bats is that they lived around lakes that favored exceptional preservation; the fine sediment and oxygen-depleted water on the lake bottoms allowed fossils to be buried quickly in an environment scavengers and other decomposers couldn’t reach.

Brown says teeth make up most of the bat fossil record. Scientists often don’t have a clear picture of fossil bats unless they were preserved at exceptional sites that yield complete or articulated skeletons. It’s these types of deposits, called lagerstatten, that paleontologists will have to find to solve the mystery. The only way to understand when bats first appeared, how they evolved to fly, and more, Brown says, is to find more of these exceptional sites from rocks 50 to 66 million years old.

Icaronycteris fossil

(Wiki Commons / Andrew Savedra)

Refining our sense of what an early proto-bat might look like is also essential. The current record doesn’t offer many hints. Consider Onychonycteris, one of the oldest known bats featuring some of the most complete remains. While this mammal has more primitive limb proportions and claws on its fingers, says Royal Ontario Museum paleontologist Kevin Seymour, “it is still a bat.” The closest paleontologists can get to understanding this animal is looking at living mouse-tailed bats, Seymour notes, which use a combination of fluttering and gliding to move through the air.

What came before is only speculative. Bats are mammals, and so the earliest bats were certainly furry. Based on finds such as Onychonycteris, it’s reasonable to propose that bats went through a gliding stage before powered flight, Seymour says, and the first bats probably were insectivores. But that’s about all scientists can say with confidence without a relatively complete fossil to fill in the gap “It will certainly require articulated material,” Seymour says, relatively complete fossils acting as keystones to the tiny fossils of Paleocene and Eocene mammals that may already be resting in museums drawers.

While experts search for the relevant fossils, other mammals may offer a rough guide of what to expect. Bats may be the only mammals to evolve powered flapping flight, but other mammal species from flying squirrels to a lemur-like creature called the colugo can glide through the air on expanded membranes. The earliest bats probably evolved along a similar route, with some extra skin allowing them to move from tree to tree.

New information about existing fossils buttresses the idea that the earliest bats scampered around in the trees. In 2013, paleontologists Kevin Padian and Kenneth Dial presented research at the annual Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting that noted some of the earliest bats had hindlimbs that flexed to the side, rather than aligning directly beneath the body. This arrangement is more consistent with climbing rock faces and trees than walking on the ground. Searching for more tree-living beasts will help connect the fossil dots.

At least paleontologists know which time frame to investigate. Some of the oldest known bats are not single skeletons, but made up bat communities of multiple species. This means that bats were already diversifying by 50 million years ago and that their ancestors are much older–perhaps springing up after the extinction that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Proto-bats are going to be found in rocks from that window of time when a strange group of mammals was just starting to take wing.

#Nature

[ihaveanimagine]

Uf, us, ut, and fs find out that their s/o is a half monster human hybrid, created in a laboratory. The way they find out is by the numbers tattooed on thebinside of their left wrist, they always wear bracelets to cover it up, when asked about it, they reveal that they can grow wings from their back, and a long tail with fluff the color of their hair on the end. When asked why they didn’t tell, they say that they thought they were an unnatural abomination, and they hate it.

(I’m assuming you mean the skellie bros for this one, if not you can resend the ask and I’ll redo it)

Underfell!Sans (Red)

You both are messing around with squirt guns on no particular summer day when he notices the numbers your wrist after you both took a quick water break. At first, he doesn’t really wanna ask (he’s still got a few secrets of his own after all), but curiosity gets the better of him and he asks what it is.

When you tell him why you never take it off he’s…..a bit silent.Sure, he ain’t gonna judge ya by your looks or abilities, but at the same time, why would you hide anything so incredibly you from him?

Because, sweetheart, you’re his angel, and you have the wings to prove it! He’s not gonna make you show him your cool appendages or anything, he’ll wait to your ready.

oh, and babe? never ever think you are an abomination. you’re his angel, his S/O, his better half, his everything. He’d love ya even if you had giant horns sticking out random places on your head.

Underfell!Papyrus (Edge)

Edge sees your tattoo during one of his suave moments where he takes you in his arms and dances with you around the living room (WHAT??? DON’T JUDGE!! DANCING IS ANOTHER FORM OF ATTACKS THAT CAN BE USED TO LURE UNSUSPECTING TARGETS INTO THEIR DOOM WITHOUT THEM REALIZING IT!!!!)

He doesn’t notice it until the dance is over and he looks down at the right moment to see your bracelets falling down enough to reveal the numbers embedded into your skin.

He’d ask what it is and when you got the tattoo out of sheer curiosity and the fact you’ve never gotten any other tatts before. When you tell him what it meant and what you can do, Edge is split.

Half of him wants to respect your decision to keep this part of you as a secret, but the other half wants to have you sprout your wings and tail right now so you both can go train with these cool new abilities!!!

This boy has never been so suave before this moment, but he takes you in his arms, tilts your head up and presses your forehead together and tells you that no matter what you look like, he knows your SOUL, and that’s all he’ll ever need.

If you decide to walk around with the wings and tail and someone insults you for it, that person will be unalived on the spot.

Underswap!Sans (Blueberry)

You both were having a pillow fight (more like a pillow slaughter) when your bracelets fly off your arm and smack him in the face. Blue’s very calm and even joking about the whole thing and pauses the pillow war long enough to hand you back your jewelry and spots the tattoo on your wrist.

He, never really seeing a tattoo up close before, immediately becomes enamored by this new thing.

WOWIE!! IS THIS THING STUCK INSIDE YOUR SKIN!? IS IT LIKE A STICKER? WH- HEY, DATEMATE? WHY ARE YOU CRYING?

You’ve told him about your past as being raised in a lab, but never really went into much detail. When you explain what you can do, Blue becomes SUPER ECSTATIC!!! DATEMATE, DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS!? YOU CAN USE YOUR WINGS TO FLY TO THE TOP CUPBOARD SO WE DON’T HAVE TO KEEP ASKING BIG BRO TO HELP US REACH IT!!! WE CAN USE THE TAIL TO HELP HOLD EXTRA GROCERIES!!! OH! WAIT!! WE CAN USE YOUR WINGS TO DIVEBOMB ALPHYS DURING TRAINING SESSIONS, WE CAN-

Someone stop this boy before he hurts himself. You probably won’t be able to tell him about your insecurities with your wings and tail because he’ll be showering affection on them loooong before he sees them.

Did he mention how much he loved you? With or without wings and a tail.

Underswap!Papyrus (Honey)

Honey discovered the tattoo when you were both snoozing and relaxing on the couch. He hadn’t originally known of it until, in your sleep, you accidentally smacked him in the face with your wrist, causing him to wake up and grab it to pry it off.

He was going to head back to sleep (you were so warm and comfy) until he saw your bracelet slink down enough to reveal the black numbers embedded into your skin. At first he was just confused, and held your wrist, lightly brushing his thumb over the numbers.

You woke up real quick after that and nearly launched yourself off the couch. Honey had to calm you down by pulling you into his arms and muttering “it’s ok” and “sshhh” repeatedly before you were coherent enough to tell him about the numbers and your abilities.

Honey’s reaction is a bit……..anticlimactic. You expected him to be weirded out or grossed out by your past, but he kinda just…shrugs??? And then offers you food like you just told him what the weather was!!!

If you ask him why he’s so calm he’ll go deadpan and say “the internet has fried my brain”. When you press for a real answer he just shrugs and places a kiss to your head “hey, sugar, I don’t care if you were a space whale with a claws for hands,  I know your SOUL, and that’s all that matters for me.”

Undertale Sans

Sans finding out about your tattoo was completely on accident. You had forgone your usual bracelet because it had been chaffing your wrist and had just hidden it with your sleeve. The deception was revealed when you and Sans were sitting at the table during an “at home” date when he asked you to pass the ketchup, and without thinking, you used your left arm to pass the bottle over, giving Sans a clear view of the tattoo.

“heh, whatever got you to get that tatt must’ve really gotten under your skin, huh babe? babe? are-are you okay? wait, why are you crying? t-talk to me sweetheart!”

Sans is gonna panic and think he said something wrong until you explain your story. Once done explaining, Sans scoots his chair right next to you and pulls you into a hug. “you shouldn’t feel like you’re an abomination, love.” He’d say, rocking you back and forth in his arms, “i love you, no matter what kind of past you have or what extra limbs you got.”

He’s not gonna view you any different, but eventually the curiosity will kill the skeleton and he’ll ask to see your wings and tail. If you comply, he’ll be in complete and utter awe of your wings and tail and ask if he can touch them. If you don’t feel like showing them he just shrugs and loops an arm around you and asks if you want to see his wings and tail.

(he’d been practicing making bone wings and tail so you wouldn’t feel alone if you chose to wear your wings and tail regularly)

Undertale Papyrus

You both were trying out a new recipe when some sauce had splashed all over your arm (I GUESS THERE IS SUCH A THING AS TOO MUCH PASSION WHEN STIRRING) and Papyrus had grabbed a towel to clean it off you. He saw your tattoo and immediately asked about it, thinking maybe it was like an ISBN number for your favorite food so you could always find it!!

Wait, why are you crying? Do you need Great Papyrus Hugs™?? He’ll give them to you anyway!!! Papyrus waits until you can speak before releasing you from his hug but keeps his hand intertwined with yours. You explain to him the meaning behind the tattoo and he just grabs your wrist and brushes his thumb over it while smiling sweetly at you.

DATEMATE, I’M SORRY YOU HAD TO ENDURE SUCH A JOYLESS CHILDHOOD, BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE ASHAMED OF YOUR UNIQUE ABILITIES!!! But when you tell him how you feel about the wings and tail, Papyrus pretty much makes it his life goal to destroy that opinion you have of yourself.

HEY DATEMATE, DID YOU KNOW THAT COLORFUL FEATHERS ARE A SIGN OF A GOOD MATE IN SOME BIRD SPECIES? DID YOU KNOW TAILS CAN BE USED FOR EXTRA BALANCING SENSES OR IMPROVED SWIMMING TECHNIQUES?? HEY DATEMATE, IT’S A REALLY NICE DAY OUTSIDE, WOULD BE NICE TO GO FOR A FLIGHT, RIGHT?

You’ll probably find yourself in tears from laughter instead of shame or fear whenever your wings and tail are brought up now.

Swapfell!Sans (Raspberry/Razz)

Razz found out when you were patching each other up after a fight. It wasn’t a difficult enemy with the two of you teaming up, but they still managed to get a few good licks in. Razz was checking your arms for any extra damages when he came across the inked numbers.

Immediately he demands to know what this is and its purpose because WHO DARES MARK HIS MATE!!!!?!?!?!?

You’ll probably have to calm him down first before you explain, but once you do he’ll immediately ask you to remove it. He doesn’t want anyone else’s mark on you besides his. When you explain the numbers can’t exactly be removed he demands you wear something of his on it instead.

He’ll probably make you a bone bracelet or something as you explain the extra limbs that come with you. When you express your……dislike for the wings and tail, Razz begins pointing out their usefulness and the advantage they can bring in a fight. NOT THAT HE’S ADMIRING THEM OR ANYTHING!!! HE TOTALLY DOESN’T THINK THAT YOU’D LOOK ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE IN WINGS AND A TAIL!! NOT AT ALL! STOP- WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING AND BLUSHING!! HE’S SERIOUS!!!!

Swapfell!Papyrus (Mutt)

Mutt found it when you were both wrestling for the TV and he had the remote dangling mockingly above your head (curse his unnatural height) when the bracelet slid down and revealed the black numbers. Curious, Mutt lowered the remote and grabbed your  wrist and looked at it with a mix of curiosity and possessiveness.

He wasn’t too familiar with tattoos and immediately assumed someone had tried to claim you, despite you being his mate. You might have to reassure him you’re his with a quick kiss or something before you explain the meaning behind the tattoo.

Mutt’s reaction is a bit…..mixed. On one hand, he understands the need to keep that a secret, but STARS you had him worried that someone else had marked you!!! He doesn’t want you to be insecure or hateful of your wings and tail, on the contrary he wants you to be at least comfortable with them (y'all can work on each other’s self-esteem together).

But he also wants you to keep them a secret from everyone but his brother. No telling when an emergency flight is needed, right? Has he mentioned he thinks you’d look hot with wings and a tail???